Two recent incidents on the international arena have pointed once again to the need for politicians to watch their step, and especially to watch what they say.

Last week, Lord Young of Graffham, peer and enterprise adviser to British prime minister David Cameron, was forced to resign after claiming most people have “never had it so good”. It was a careless, thoughtless remark and perhaps he thought he could get away with it, but it quickly became apparent that public opinion, and a hawk-eyed media, was not going to forgive him so easily.

In the current economic climate in the United Kingdom, the mere suggestion that people are not as down and out as they are claiming to be is an insulting slap in the face to those who have to cope with the very real grim prospect of losing their jobs and their homes. It was more than just a gaffe; it was an indication and, perhaps, even a confirmation that Lord Young and, by association, all those like him, have no idea what the average person is going through. As soon as the criticism began, there were apologies from Lord Young and censure from Cameron, who described the remark as “offensive”, but it was too late. The damage had been done.

In the ruthless world of politics, no one can afford to have a liability attached to one’s government and there is no room for such mistakes – Lord Young offered his resignation and Cameron very swiftly accepted it. There was not the slightest hesitation on the part of the Prime Minister because he knows that the dark mutterings among the electorate over such an insensitive remark will most surely translate themselves into a drop in his own popularity stakes. Cameron needed to demonstrate that he was disassociating himself completely from such an opinion, for his own political survival.

Yesterday, there was another resignation over another careless remark, this time in Japan.

Japan’s justice minister was compelled to resign over comments he made a week ago, which he said were just a “joke”.

Minoru Yanagida quipped that as Justice Minister he only needed to remember two replies: “I do not comment on specific cases,” and “We are dealing with the matter appropriately based on law and evidence”.

Making light of one’s duties when holding such a high office is just not done, and the ensuing outrage was only to be expected. Once again, there was a situation where a politician’s statement reflected badly on the incumbent prime minister, in this case Naoto Kan, who is already doing badly in opinion polls because of a flailing economy.

It is significant that, in both the above-mentioned cases, the public mood (precisely because of the economic crisis) has shown itself to be extremely fickle: supporting one party in government one minute, and then quickly turning against that administration at the slightest hint of an insensitive politician.

These two examples should surely be borne in mind by certain Maltese politicians who have often shown themselves to be completely out of touch with what the nation is feeling. In Malta we have not yet got to the point where someone was made to resign simply over an ill-advised remark or gaffe, but perhaps if this were to happen, politicians would start speaking a bit more carefully.